Some in Iran support phone call with Obama

Sunday

Sep 29, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2013 at 2:40 PM

TEHRAN, Iran - Smiling and waving flags, Iranians from across the political spectrum welcomed President Hassan Rouhani home yesterday with cheers for his historic phone conversation with his American counterpart. However, pockets of anger over the new contact between the two enemy nations signaled challenges ahead.

TEHRAN, Iran — Smiling and waving flags, Iranians from across the political spectrum welcomed President Hassan Rouhani home yesterday with cheers for his historic phone conversation with his American counterpart.

However, pockets of anger over the new contact between the two enemy nations signaled challenges ahead.

Hard-liners opposed to any improved contact with Washington made their objections clear as several dozen protesters chanting “Death to America” tried to block his motorcade in Tehran. The semiofficial Mehr news agency reported that at least one demonstrator hurled a shoe — a common gesture of contempt in the Middle East — in Rouhani’s direction. Other reports said eggs were thrown at his car.

“Dialogue with Satan is not ‘hope and prudence,’??” some chanted, using Rouhani’s campaign slogan from the June presidential election.

Rouhani supporters, meanwhile, greeted him with placards thanking him. One banner read: “Yes to peace, no to war.”

Friday’s 15-minute phone call between Rouhani and President Barack Obama capped a week of drama revolving around Rouhani’s participation in the annual U.N. meeting of world leaders.

The Iranian leader now has the difficult mission of trying to unite the country to ease a three-decade-long estrangement with the U.S. and move toward a possible settlement to roll back sanctions imposed over Tehran’s nuclear program. The West says Iran’s program aims at developing weapons technology while Tehran says it is for peaceful purposes.

The effort appears to have the critical backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But even his endorsement is not enough to silence criticism of the fast-paced developments during the past days.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads the foreign policy and national security committee in parliament, was quoted by Iranian media as saying that the call showed Iran’s “might.” But the hard-line rajanews.com news website said there was no justification for Rouhani to talk to the “Great Satan,” its term for the U.S., and that the conversation was “a strange and useless step.”

Rouhani has followed a policy of moderation and easing tensions with the outside world, a marked distancing from the bombastic style of his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Rouhani says Iran is ready to provide assurances that Iran’s nuclear program won’t be weaponized by offering greater transparency and cooperation. He has demanded lifting of sanctions in return.

Also yesterday, the CNN website, blocked since unrest broke out in 2009 over Ahmadinejad’s disputed election, was accessible in what could be a sign of gradual easing of Internet restrictions and outreach to the U.S.

In the past, blocked websites have become available temporarily before being blocked again.

“Historic contact on the flight back home” was the front-page headline in the moderate Etemad daily newspaper yesterday. Arman, another newspaper, wrote: “The world was caught by surprise.”

Upon returning home, Rouhani told reporters that the United States gave him a 2,700 year-old artifact, interpreted as a new token of friendship. The artifact had been in New York since 2003, when an art dealer smuggled it into the U.S. from Iran.

Rouhani’s talk with Obama was organized after Rouhani’s staff reached out to the White House with the proposal. The two leaders did not meet when they were at the U.N. on Tuesday after speeches to the General Assembly.